Mystic Bay at Veranda Paul & Virginie

Grand Gaube, at the north-eastern tip of the island, is one of the least developed stretches of Mauritian coastline — rocky headlands, shallow reef, and small fishing villages barely changed since the 18th-century maritime era when Paul et Virginie sailed these waters. The Veranda Paul et Virginie hotel sits on this coast, and Mystic Bay is its main restaurant, serving the kind of seafood-led cooking that the northern coast does better than anywhere else. The lobster bisque is the dish that earns its reputation: deeply flavoured, made from crayfish shells roasted with brandy and cream, and ladled from a copper pot at the table with a quenelle of saffron cream. The grilled lobster, available year-round from local traps, comes with drawn butter and a charred half lemon. The Creole fish curry (cari capitaine) uses the fresh-caught fish from the nearby Grand Gaube fishing cooperative and comes with steamed rice and two types of chutney. In the evening, Mystic Bay quietens considerably from its lunchtime self and becomes one of the more romantically situated restaurants on the north coast — the lights of offshore islands flickering in the distance, the sound of the reef breaking, the smell of grilled fish in the trade wind.